In the following excerpt, Cousin surveys the performance and critical history of King John, listing significant adaptations of the drama and summarizing major movements in its reception and interpretation.

King John in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries

The few incontestable facts concerning the early history of King John are soon told: in 1598 it was listed among Shakespeare's ‘tragedies’ in Francis Meres's Palladis Tamia; it was initially published in the First Folio of 1623; the first production for which a record still exists was at Covent Garden in February 1737. Scholarly opinion is divided with regard to both the date of the play's composition and whether this precedes or antedates the publication, in 1591, of an anonymous play, The Troublesome Reign of John, King of England. Though the majority view has been that Shakespeare's play is...